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A US Army Europe unit,the 2nd Cavalry Regiment,which was deployed to the Baltic States when Russia invaded Crimea,has requested new,more powerful cannons for 81 of its Stryker infantry fighting vehicles.The Regiment wants 30 mm cannons to replace their current 12.7 mm armament-more than doubling their combat power.The US Army approved the request last Wednesday and the House Armed Services Committee is setting money aside for the upgrade as well,the Breaking Defense website learned from a memo.
The Regiment is concerned about countering the Russian BMP-3 amphibious infantry combat vehicle,which also has a 30 mm autocannon 2A72;a 100 mm gun/launcher that can fire anti-tank guided missiles;plus 3 7.62 mm PKT machine guns.*
Last Thursday,NATO accused Russia of mounting a buildup on the border with Ukraine that could facilitate a Blitzkrieg attack by Russian-backed separatists in Eastern Ukraine.More than 1,000 pieces of Russian military equipment,including tanks,artillery and air defence units have been massed on the border over the past month,NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg complained.What is more,Russia is stepping up the shipment of supplies to the separatist forces and providing advanced training and drones to them.The US State Department added that Russia has deployed air defence systems in Eastern Ukraine and that joint Russian-separatist forces are maintaining artillery and rocket launchers in violation of the current ceasefire arrangements.*
Russia is angered by US paratroopers from the 173d Airborne Brigade being on a six-month deployment to Western Ukraine for a training mission with six Ukrainian National Guard units,charging that they are in fact in Eastern Ukraine.*
The US currently has no permanently based tank forces in Europe,so the forward-deployed Stryker would have an even more critical role in the event of a crisis.General Dynamics manufactures the Stryker line of IFVs.*
General Dynamics (GD)

A status report on the war on the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant was presented to journalists by Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren,US Army,on Monday 20 April.Ramadi,capital of Anbar Province,Iraq remains highly contested-it's a tough fight there right now.We're hopeful that coalition air power along with the resolve of the Iraqi ground forces will be able to hold.In Beiji,Iraqi troops successfully linked up with forces on the ground in the oil refinery and have thus far been able to secure the refinery.We are dedicating some air power to the fight and it remains a contested situation.
In Afghanistan,we don't necessarily believe that conditions are such that ISIL would be welcome.We don't see the rebranding of disaffected Taliban and other militants to ISIL as a cause of increased violence in Afghanistan yet,but it is certainly something that we're going to continue to watch.
In Libya,the Department is beginning to see more than a rebranding effort.I think Libya is probably where ISIL most wants to gain a foothold.At this point,they have gained at least a toehold in Libya based on an extraordinary amount of unrest and an almost completely deteriorated security situation.
Nearly every one of the press releases that we issue every day indicates damage to tactical units-that's fighters being killed.So I would submit to you that we've delivered punishing blows to ISIL over the past six months.We've started to see cracks in ISIL's ability to bring on new forces.ISIL is turning now to conscription,to forcing people into their armed forces,and in some cases to child soldiers.So the pressure that the combination of air and ground power we're applying to ISIL is having an effect,COL Warren concluded.*
The Pentagon says in a special report that since the kinetic engagement with the Islamist extremists began in August 2014,ISIL has lost about 25-30% of the territory it held in Iraq.*
In Syria,the Pentagon reports that attack,fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 10 airstrikes between 8 am local on 19 April and 8am on 20 April:
Near Hasakah,three airstrikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and a mortar position,destroying a fighting position.Near Kobani,seven airstrikes struck seven tactical units,destroying two vehicles,a fighting position,mortar tube and an ISIL anti-aircraft artillery piece.
The Royal Canadian Air Force has now joined the air campaign against ISIL targets in Syria,as well as Iraq.They fly the CF-18 Hornet,as well as mission support aircraft.

A US Air Force Boeing RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft was buzzed by a Russian Su-27 Flanker in international air space over the Baltic Sea on 7 April,the Pentagon revealed on Sunday.The unarmed and unescorted RC-135 was intercepted off of Northern Poland while flying a routine route,most likely to monitor Russian forces in Kaliningrad and Western Russia.The Pentagon plans to file a complaint with Russia through diplomatic channels,spokesman Mark Wright said.During the encounter,the Flanker came within six meters of the RC-135,approaching at a very high rate of speed from behind the RC-135 and circling it,also rolling over to flash its armament.This maneuver was then repeated before disengagement.
In a statement,the Pentagon's chief spokesman,Colonel Steve Warren,US Army,said that unprofessional air intercepts have the potential to cause harm to all aircrews involved.More importantly,the careless and unprofessional actions of a single pilot have the potential to escalate tensions between countries,COL Warren added.
In service in several variants since 1961,the 22 USAF RC-135s are based at Offut Air Force Base,Nebraska and deployed to forward operating locations worldwide.They are used by the USAF Air Combat Command's 55th Wing and Britain's Royal Air Force Number 51 Squadron to support theatre and national intelligence consumers with near-real time collections,analysis and dissemination.The current variants in service include:
-3 RC-135S Cobra Ball ballistic missile intelligence planes
-2 RC-135U Combat Sent adversary radar emitter intelligence planes
-17 RC-135V/W Rivet Joint SIGINT planes
-a Royal Air Force RC-135W SIGINT plane,which was delivered in September 2013 and has been placed in service in Operation Inherent Resolve against ISIL since July 2014.Two more are on order.The three aircraft will replace the Nimrod R1.
Rivet Joint is the standard airborne SIGINT platform,detecting,identifying and geolocating signals within the entire electromagnetic spectrum with its advanced sensor suite.The Rivet Joint crew consists of cockpit crew;electronic warfare officers;intelligence operators;and airborne systems maintenance personnel.
Rivet Joint airframe and mission system modifications are made exclusively by contractor L-3 Communications.L-3 is a US-based prime contractor in aerospace systems and national security solutions,providing a broad range of communications and electronic systems and products for military and commercial platforms.*
Boeing (BA),L-3 Communications Holdings Inc (LLL)

On Sunday and Monday,the Kenya Air Force conducted air strikes on two al-Shabaab camps just over the border in the Gedo region of Western Somalia,Kenya Defence Forces spokesman Colonel David Obongo said.The raids were carried out in response to al-Shabaab's horrific attack on Garissa University College last Thursday,in which the Islamist extremists killed 148 non-Muslim people,most of them Christian students.The raids were also part of an ongoing strategy against the militants.Garissa is located about 200 kilometers/120 miles from the border with Somalia,which is 700 km long.
An initial raid on the camps,which serve as arms caches and logistical support centres,took place on Sunday;a second sortie was carried out early Monday after more activity was noted in the camps.
The KDF's aerial images show the camps were completely destroyed;but cloud cover made it difficult to estimate the death toll,according to COL Obongo.Al-Shabaab denied that any of its camps were damaged in the raids,saying the bombs hit farm land.*
In 2013,al Shabaab killed 67 people in an assault on Westgate Mall in Nairobi.The jihadi group swore allegiance to al-Qaida in 2012.It was estimated to have about 7,000 fighters in 2014,including foreign fighters.The US has struck at the organisation several times with drone strikes and air strikes,killing some of its leaders,including Moktar Ali Zubayr on 1 September 2014.Their current leader is Ahmad Umar.The militant group is also allied with al-Qaida in the Arabian Penninsula,which is active in Yemen.Al-Shabaab is additionally suspected of having ties with al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and Boko Haram,the ISIL affiliate in Nigeria.*
The Kenya Air Force flies the Northrop F-5E Tiger II fighter,an aircraft still used for training by the US Navy and Marine Corps,and is flown by the Swiss,Taiwan and Honduran air forces as well.